How To Be a Digital Nomad 101✈️
So I used to work in a typical corporate job, wearing corporate clothing, and hanging with corporate people hating my corporate life.
I have a lot of other videos about how I left that life and got to this new one but that's not what this blog is about.
These days I have to travel full-time with no real set end date and no real committed tie to anything.
Taking advantage of and strategy some call location arbitrage and one of my favorite expressions from the 4-hour work week describing the cycle:
Make dollars, Spend pesos, Compensate in rupees
It’s been fun but there have been lots of mistakes and lots of learnings with the traveling lifestyle especially around running a business and creating content while living outside of the US and moving around all the time.
So in this blog, we are going to break down 3 main categories of life while traveling:
Clothing and Luggage When Moving Around
Technology and having a portable studio set up
Housing
I have done a lot of research on each of these and as mentioned made a lot of mistakes in this process so hopefully you can avoid some of the same ones and build off what I have been working on. Every product mentioned in this blog will be linked in the show notes with any affiliate links or discount codes for the products.
So let’s get into it
Clothing and Luggage When Moving Around
This was something I struggled with for a while. Mainly because when I was traveling I was looking for clothing that could serve 3 to 4 purposes. Good for working, good for working out, good for playing golf, and functional for going out. And also light enough to fit in a suitcase that could be rolled onto a plane, not a fan of checking bags if possible
And No offense to the other digital nomads I saw making videos on YouTube since I have virtually no fashion sense - but their clothing seemed almost too efficient or too backpacker/hiker oriented instead of something that looked good and normal day to-day or could be worn in multiple settings.
So I started looking and didn't find a lot of great options are first. But after lots of buying and returning clothing and talking to people, I found a few options that have worked well so far
Here’s what they are:
For shirts, I went with cuts and Lululemon for every day and then Nike Henleys for golf.
https://www.cutsclothing.com/collections/all-shirts/
https://www.nike.com/t/dri-fit-tiger-woods-mens-striped-golf-polo-7n4c3N/DR5318-850
https://shop.lululemon.com/p/men-tops/Evolution-Polo/_/prod6020330?color=26857
In a pinch, they could be swapped to go out/work out/play golf or be on Zoom calls for business
They are also really light and I think look good.
As long as I can do laundry 1x per week, I just make sure I have 7 t-shirts packed and I can get by in almost any situation.
And what's even better is that in places like Colombia, it’s really easy/cheap to just have pickup wash and fold laundry done for you - for about $8 dollars
The shorts I typically wear are Lulu, Nike, and Adidas.
For the same reasons as the others, it is versatile, light, and looks good.
And again, I still don’t think I’m in any position to give fashion advice but I think it could be a lot worse.
For shoes, I bring 1 pair of sneakers and one pair of white leather shoes for going out.
I bring 2 pairs of jeans and 1 pair of sweatpants.
The other thing I forgot to mention - last year I decided I wanted to remove cold weather from my life. I just don’t like it and it makes me less creative. If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a Frank kern perfect day video on my Youtube channel but it completely changed my life and helped me realize what an ideal lifestyle looked like.
So, when I decided that I pretty much donated, sold, or put all my winter clothes in storage. Jackets, boots, and basically long sleeves.
And If you think about it, not having to account for different types of weather also makes traveling way easier. If it’s always going to be 60-80 degrees you can plan accordingly. 20-80 degrees, not so much.
As for the luggage, I was looking for a while and I’m really happy with the main 2 items I ended up finding. A NOMATIC backpack and a Solgaard suite case.
The NOMATIC backpack was originally a Kickstarter item with the goal of just creating smarter backpacks. And this backpack has exceeded my expectations in pretty much every way. It’s light, expandable, has tons of pockets, really smart design, and looks pretty sleek.
The bag I got is called the Travel Pack backpack and it costs $299 before any sales.
Link: https://www.nomatic.com/products/the-nomatic-backpack
They run a lot of sales and you can usually find at least a 10% off code.
And the Solgaard suitcase may have been on crowdfunding websites also but this also has been an amazing bag. Like I actually do love this bag.
Link: https://solgaard.co/products/carry-on-closet?variant=11503410118703
What makes it cool is that It comes with a built-in shelf design basically so you can pack it and unpack it easily but also just hang it as a closet wherever you go
I didn’t like living off the floor which I was doing for months when I was just rolling around a normal suitcase.
Both of these items are also small enough that doesn't need to be checked when flying.
I am definitely picky with this type of stuff but I really think these bags are almost perfect or as close to perfect as you can find.
Next, let’s move on to the tech or traveling studio depending on what you do.
2. Technology
My friends Max Bidna and Chris Montes actually helped me with this challenge the most, and I definitely recommend you check out - real estate investors and entrepreneurs.
They helped me get over my final excuse for not going full-nomad. They pushed me to find the right gear and take action. Some of you know I do post and also make these blogs and I just felt like the podcast would suffer and making YouTube videos would be impossible because of noises and weird lighting environments on the move compared to an at-home studio I built.
If you take one thing from this blog - it’s that we all make up justifications to stay comfortable. We all feel it, it's just that some people can push past that and some people can’t. How much you can push through these that will determine your success and life experience.
So, for me, this started a quest to find a setup that would be quality, easy to travel with, and not too expensive.
Maybe in another video, I’ll deep dive into this but for the sake of time. I’ll just outline the final choices and why
Mac m1 laptop - I was using a Lenovo before. Mainly because of my job. All I have to say is that Apple is just better. Easier, faster, better support, and an amazing ecosystem if you have an iPhone.
iPhone 12 - I had iPhones before and was just used to it. Similar reasoning to the Mac, it just works so well and so easily.
iPad Pro - I use it mainly as a wireless 2nd screen for my laptop but also to read at night and other random use cases
Airpod Pros - could be the best thing Apple has made in the last 5 years in my opinion. They just work great especially when you are on the move and have lots of calls, meetings, or creating content.
Canon EOS m50 - love-hate relationship with this camera but it's simple and the picture is good. There's definitely a learning curve that I'm still on but its kind of the unanimous best starter camera for YouTubers and content creators.
Tripod - just a necessity - but I needed one that could expand or fold up.
Teleprompter - I may make an entire video about how this changed content creation for me, but without it, I could not create youtube videos, and with this, it feels easy.
Podcast mic - Samson USB mic. Simple, good quality, and affordable.
USB webcam - similar praise to the Samson - is also simple, good quality, and affordable.
Lighting - I actually have not figured out a good lighting solution yet, so my answer here isn't great. I will either use natural lighting, light from my iPad or depending on where I am and the cost, just buy a ring light and kinda use it as disposable or just give it to someone when I leave where I am.
But that's pretty much the setup.
For cables - most south American countries have American cabling for plugging in devices, if you are going to Europe or Asia, you might just need something from this list but it should be a big deal: Here’s the link
And for the record, I’m not claiming to have the best YouTube/podcast quality by any means, I’m certain that in a few years when I look back at these, I’m going to laugh at the quality, but that’s okay, it’s good enough for now and it’s continually getting better.
But one of my favorite expressions - you can’t improve something that doesn’t exist.
So done is better than perfect and if you’re looking for a setup to model - this could work.
One other really important thing to remember with clothing and technology. Unless you are missing a phone, laptop, or iPad when you get somewhere, there is probably a good chance you can replace whatever item you lose or forget to bring for less than $200 in total. Not great, but if this is your worse case, and the equipment you use makes you money, it's not the end of the world.
And as Tim Ferris talks about in 4hww if you need to find something at a store in a random country, enjoy it - use it as an excuse for an adventure.
3. Housing
This is actually a lot easier than I expected. While I do plan to have a base apartment somewhere in the coming year - either Austin, west palm, or Charlotte, living in furnished rentals - mainly Airbnb - has been pretty easy and less expensive than I ever thought it would be.
I usually find my apartment on Airbnb, furnished finder, or hello landing. These are all great sites for finding extended stay furnished quality housing and you've probably heard of them. I have criteria for what I look for each time and a budget and then I just do a little searching. It’s pretty simple and I have never had a problem finding clean, affordable housing within these sites.
As far as picking locations, I wouldn't overthink it. I'd just start by going places you may have some friends and you like the things to do there. For me, I just like to have one friend there to do stuff with or know I can call if I'm ever in a weird situation.
And there are some cool benefits of staying in these types of properties.
By not paying a conventional mortgage or rent with an ACH and paying for Airbnb or extended housing on other sites we'll talk about - you accrue travel points from your cost of housing which never happened when paying rent or a mortgage on a primary. And also depending on the lender you speak with some will not count this as DTI since it’s on a credit card and not an ACH
Because you are not paying taxes, utilities, or insurance, and most hosts have large discounts for month-long stays, to me, the 'higher cost' on paper of renting a furnished property, doesn't actually come out to be much higher of a cost than a traditional rental or mortgage payment. And you have the savings of having massive flexibility.
Then the last benefit will depend on how hard you want to jump in but you may find big savings in this if you can avoid paying double the rent.
People would actually travel a lot more if they didn't have mortgage or rent payments on an empty apartment while they were traveling - which is essentially paying double rent. When you live in month-to-month furnished housing you are never double-paying because in theory, you are just living in that location as your home. There is no set apartment to go back to. I know this part is a little weird but after doing this for a few months as an experiment I realized that most places were better decorated than my 'own apartment' and had better decorations than my own apartment so I felt that much more comfortable about scrapping a 'home address'. And when I realized this, I was able to let go of my tie to that concept. And what I ended up doing was just moving all my old furniture into my Airbnb or just selling/donating it. And that was that.
It may seem a little scary or uncomfortable just picking up and traveling. It took me a while to pull the trigger and I definitely felt a lot of stress in doing it. There were 2 books that really helped me and I highly recommend them. 4-hour workweek by Tim Ferris and Rolf Potts. I read this book multiple times as I was getting ready to start the journey and they gave tons of tips and tactics
What may also help is telling yourself that you can always just abandon the travel at any time and head home. There is nothing locking you to one location that cannot be undone for a little money and in a lot of cases no money lost.
That’s it guys!
Visit my YouTube channel to see the video! 👇
